Identity V: End Phase
by MyAibou
Summary: Post canon. Every journey ends with a choice. Of the new paths before Yugi and his friends, which will they choose to follow?
1. Funeral for a Friend

**IDENTITY**

**Disclaimer:** If I owned _Yu-gi-oh!_ and its characters instead of Kazuki Takahashi, would I be posting this for free online? No. I'd be out on a trip around the world spending my royalty checks.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive content, mild violence (of the battling-cartoon-monsters variety).

**Pairings and Warnings:** Yugi x Téa (x Atem). Kaiba x Kisara. Joey x Mai. Tristan x Serenity. Some Bakura x Marik (_shonen ai_ mostly; nothing very graphic.) Puzzleshippy stuff if you squint really hard. And yeah, I use the dub names. It's how I got to know and love these characters. But the continuity pulls from the dub, the sub, and the manga and exists in the same universe as all my other YGO stories. Sequel to the _Revival_ series.

**Acknowledgements: **What can I say about my brilliant beta-tester, **Dragondancer1014**, that I haven't already said? This story probably would have stayed unfinished in the depths of my hard drive if it weren't for her. Her contributions during marathon phone calls and brainstorming sessions are too numerous to name, but I do need to give a special thanks for her help with the final chapter. I had the nugget of an idea for how I wanted to finish this story, and she took it and ran with it. Yin and Yang. So perfect.

I also need to thank **Cody** of _Yu-Jyo_ fame. Her help with finding just the right Japanese word to add that last final touch was invaluable, not to mention how often I used her episode guides to research details. I think I owe a huge part of my being a YGO fan to that site.

It's been a long ride—a year and a half of my life. I can't believe that it's almost over. I'm not sure if I'm relieved or sad. A little of both, perhaps. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed. I really appreciate all your comments.

* * *

**Part V**  
**End Phase**

_Announce the end of your turn and…resolve…effects in this phase._  
—Yu-gi-oh! Trading Card Game Official Rulebook

* * *

**1. Funeral for a Friend**

The sun was just dipping below the horizon to the west of the Valley of the Kings, painting the sky in brilliant streaks of red and purple, as they assembled near the tombs the day after Ramesses' defeat. In many ways, it reminded Tristan of the morning three years ago when they'd gathered in Kul Elna to witness the Ceremonial Battle. All who had been present that day were here now—Yugi, Téa, Joey, and himself; Kaiba and Mokuba; Ishizu, Marik, and Odion; Yugi's grandfather; Duke; Bakura.

Their group was larger this time, however. There were those who had been with them almost from the beginning, but who had missed that final moment three years ago—Mai, Serenity, and Rebecca. There were new acquaintances—Rashida Ishtar and Sara Drake. Pegasus was there as well, having flown in yesterday from San Francisco, missing the final battle against Ramesses by only a few hours. Friends, family, and even former adversaries and enemies, all a part of their ever-widening circle of allies joined together in the same fight.The only one not with them was Professor Hawkins, and his absence was keenly felt.

It was Yugi who had asked them all to come. Ishizu had deemed that only he and Kaiba needed to participate in the funeral rites that would substitute their bodies for their ancient Egyptian counterparts', anchoring Atem's and Seto's _Kas _and allowing them to return from the Shadow Realm to the Spirit World. Naturally, Tristan, Téa, and Joey had insisted on attending as well, but Yugi, who had never asked anything of anyone in the entire time Tristan had known him, had made a personal request to the entire group.

"Six years ago, before the Millennium Puzzle and the other me came into my life, there were only two of you I could count as my family or friends. Now each of you has become so much more than that. You are a part of me. Every one of you." He'd directed that last specifically to Mai, who was still bristling from her exclusion in the final battle. "And most of you have been an important part of the oth—of Atem's time with us as well. I could not be who I am had it not been for all of you, and I know he feels the same. Please, do me the honor of seeing him returned to the Spirit World where he belongs."

And so they congregated between the entrances to Atem's and Seto's tombs before a makeshift altar Ishizu had prepared. She'd spent the better part of the previous afternoon and evening poring over the scrolls and ancient texts they'd brought back with them from San Francisco, finally finding what she needed to know how to perform the funeral. After that, she'd needed most of today to pull together everything she would require for the rites. Last night, she'd sent Marik, Bakura, Odion, and Rashida to the tombs to hold the sustaining ritual that would strengthen Atem's and Seto's spirits one last time. Tonight, exactly two weeks after it began, their internment in the Shadow Realm would finally end. Tonight, they would finally be sent home.

Ishizu began by lighting an incense urn on the altar. She was wearing the long white robes and headdress of an Egyptian priestess, but everyone else was dressed in the formal black suits and dresses appropriate to a Japanese Buddhist wake. That had been Téa's idea. When Joey had been stupid enough to point out that Atem was neither Japanese nor Buddhist, she had stomped on his foot. "It's not for him, you nimrod! We're the ones who need to say good-bye."

It wasn't exactly like a regular wake, since they had no Buddhist priest to officiate and read the sutra, and no body before which to offer incense, but they each took a turn at the urn on the altar anyway, with those closest to the deceased going first. Tristan was fourth in line behind Yugi, Téa, and Joey. As he bowed before the urn to make his offering, he found himself grateful that Téa had been so insistent. There was a rightness to doing this, to saying good-bye in a formal, ritualized way, and he wondered why they hadn't thought to do it three years ago when Atem had first left them. Actually, Tristan knew the answer to that. Watching Atem walk into the light, his back straight and proud, had never felt like death to any of them, and they'd all avoided calling it that, treating it more like he'd simply moved very far away. It had taken them three years to accept the truth and to call it what it was—Atem was dead, and they needed to mourn him.

Tristan finished his bow and walked away from the urn, allowing Grandpa Mutou his turn. As he watched the other mourners offer incense one by one, it struck him that despite the rightness of the ceremony, it didn't really feel like a funeral. The sadness had three years' distance to it, and even with the shock of getting to see and speak with Atem again, it hadn't been quite as hard to let him go this time. In fact, Tristan almost felt a sense of joy and celebration as a sort of undercurrent to the solemnity of the occasion. Celebration at the impact Atem had made on their lives and of they way he lived on in Yugi. Joy that he was going to be leaving the Shadow Realm and returning to the Spirit World where he belonged.

Sara was the last person in line, and when she was finished, Yugi and Kaiba joined Ishizu at the altar to begin the Egyptian part of the ceremony. At first, Tristan stood close to Téa's side, as was his custom during Shadow Games or any other time Yugi was absent or in danger and she might need his emotional support. After a while, however, he could see she was holding her own—like him, she seemed at peace rather than truly grieving—and he found himself edging away from her and toward the back of the crowd. He'd learned from having to endure too many formal military ceremonies when he was a full-time soldier in the Japanese Self-Defense Force that he preferred to stand in the back and away from other people if possible.

He knew from the crash-course in Egyptian funerary rites he'd gotten reading all those books over the last week that the majority of a typical funeral revolved around the embalming of the body and a ceremony known as the Opening of the Mouth, intended to re-animate the dead body so the _Ka_ could use it as an anchor from which it could travel to the afterlife. None of these were relevant to the present circumstances, of course, so Ishizu was focusing on lesser-known rituals intended to re-establish the link between _Ka_ and body after death and to help aid passage of the deceased through the underworld and into the afterlife. Unlike the comforting familiarity of the Japanese traditions, the foreign rites and language were impossible for Tristan to follow. He tried to keep his mind focused on Atem and Yugi, on how they were putting right what had been inflicted on both of them, but he found his thoughts wandering to the one subject that over the past several days kept pushing its way to the forefront whenever he wasn't in full-out crisis mode: Serenity.

Although at first he'd done a fairly good job of quashing whatever emotions she'd dredged up with her confession a week ago, ever since their arrival in Egypt, he'd sensed some sort of shift in her, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. She seemed… closer to him somehow, but he was afraid of reading too much into it. Then yesterday at the hospital, she'd said something that he couldn't stop thinking about. It was right after Yugi had asked her to try and heal Professor Hawkins and then had run off when she couldn't do it. Téa and Joey had both started after him, but Grandpa Mutou had stopped them, insisting that he should be the one to talk to Yugi. Serenity, meanwhile, had walked out of the professor's room to find a seat away from everyone else, and Tristan had followed after her, worried that she was feeling guilty about her inability to help.

"It's not your fault, you know. You did everything you could."

"If only I could've called Mystical Elf when we first found him…"

"That's not your fault, either. You tried. And it might've already been too late anyway."

"I know." She looked up at him, giving him a strange scrutinizing look that made his stomach twist around in a way that wasn't altogether unpleasant. "Tristan, why do you keep backing me up?"

"Huh?" He wrinkled his nose at the odd question.

"First in the catacombs, then during the Shadow Game. Why do you keep encouraging me to call Mystical Elf?"

"Uh… because you can?" Sitting down beside her, he resisted the urge to take her hand or touch her arm. "I don't know why it surprises you so much. Why wouldn't I back you up? It's what I do. I'm the backup guy." He gave her a sheepish grin. "You know, Command Knight. Gives all the warriors on our side extra strength."

She cocked her head, quizzical. "You think of me as a warrior?"

"Nah, not a warrior. More like a combat medic. Battalion Aid."

This seemed to astonish her for some reason, despite the fact that she had been hired by Pegasus to fill exactly that role. "I can't believe you see me that way."

"Why not? How else would I see you?"

She sighed. "Whenever I think of you, I see the guy who picked me up and carried me on his back to help me get away from those Rare Hunters that came after us in Battle City. A little like Joey, you know? Someone who stands between me and whatever's out there trying to hurt me. I just… I can't wrap my head around you as someone who would ever stand _behind_ me."

He frowned, troubled by the implication that he no longer would stand between her and danger. "It's not like I don't care if you get hurt. You know that, right? I'd never… I'd do anything—"

"No, that's not what I mean at all!" She winced. "Of course I know you care, that you would try and stop someone from hurting me. But I just realized that you don't assume I'm _going_ to get hurt. You don't treat me like a china doll that will shatter if I'm taken out of the box. I keep expecting you to, because you're the one who carried me. But you don't."

He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees and clasping his hands together as he looked up at her, finally understanding what she was getting at. "Serenity, you were fourteen, you'd just come out of major surgery, and you had bandages wrapped around your eyes. Of course I carried you—it was the only thing I _could_ do. But that's not who you are now. You don't need me to carry you anymore."

Chewing on her lip, she considered this. "I'm not really sure what I need."

With a shrug, he answered, "A backup guy?"

She met his eyes, her gaze strangely intent. "You're more than just the backup guy."

He'd sat upright at this, wanting to ask her what she meant, but at that moment, Yugi and his grandfather had returned, and their attention had been drawn back to the matter at hand—Rebecca's grandfather. Then when they'd left the hospital, there had been the usual post-battle debriefings, plans to discuss for getting Atem and Seto back to the afterlife, and too much time spent shopping for the black funeral clothes Téa had insisted they wear today even though no one had thought to pack any.

Now, as he tried to focus on what Ishizu was doing to Yugi and to Kaiba to help Atem's and Seto's passage back to the Spirit World, his mind kept jumping back to those seven words. _You're more than just the backup guy._

_How much more, Serenity?_

He closed his eyes, trying to shake it off. Dwelling on what he probably could never have was _so_ not doing him any good.

A hand slipped into his, fingers interlacing with his own, and he opened his eyes, startled and a little chagrined. _So much for the ever-alert MP._ It was Serenity, and he felt his cheeks burn, as if she somehow could read his thoughts. She squeezed his hand in a comforting gesture, however, giving him a look of sympathy, and he realized with a mixture of relief and guilt that she must have thought that his wistfulness was because of Atem. He gave her a nod of reassurance, squeezing her hand back, but when he tried to let go, she wouldn't release her grip. He frowned, giving her a questioning look. She gazed back at him, her eyes locking onto his in a way that made his mouth go dry. Her hand was warm, despite the brisk evening air, and just a little slippery with nervous sweat, but he couldn't tell whether it was from her palm or his. After what seemed like hours of staring into his eyes, she gave him a small smile and turned her attention back toward the altar, all without letting go of his hand.

He stood completely still for several seconds, trying to get his brain to process what had just passed between them. Then, he slowly extricated his hand from hers to put a tentative arm around her shoulders, releasing a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding when she leaned into him, settling into the crook of his arm as if she'd always belonged there.

They stood that way for the rest of the ceremony, watching together as their friend was sent back home.


	2. The Right Thing to Do

**2. The Right Thing to Do **

Although the elaborate meal they shared back at Ishizu's house was ostensibly a memorial dinner, Yugi was far too content and at peace to feel like a mourner. The sense of unease and _wrongness_ that had shrouded him since that night in the pub when he'd felt Ramesses' attack on Atem's body—no, actually, it was before that, back on Christmas Eve when he'd called out to his other self in his sleep—had lifted completely during the funeral rites, and Yugi knew without a doubt that Atem was safe once more in the afterlife where he belonged. He could see it in Kaiba, too—a sort of release. It was as if Kaiba had had a chronic pain he'd become so accustomed to that he barely noticed anymore . . . until it had suddenly disappeared.

And yet, Yugi felt different than he had before the desecrations. When the darkness had lifted, a new weight had settled onto his shoulders. Not a burden, but a comforting presence, like a warm jacket on a brisk day. _I'm already bound to you for eternity_, he'd told Atem, and now the bond was palpable in a way it hadn't been since the Ceremonial Battle. _We are complete, Other Me._

The others felt it, too. They reminisced, a little like Christmas morning on the penthouse terrace, only this time more than just Yugi's three closest friends were included. Duke remembered the comeuppance Atem had handed him at his own game. Serenity recalled how he'd jumped in to protect Joey and Mai from Ra's blast in the Shadow Game against Marik. Mai talked about their match in the Duelist Kingdom semifinals and the whole Orichalcos mess and how his internal battles had often mirrored her own. They toasted him, and his cousin Seto, too, remembering their bond and asserting that it would always remain unbroken.

Only when Yugi looked at Rebecca would he remember that there were other losses to mourn. She sat in uncharacteristic silence beside Mokuba, barely touching her food, even though the shish kebabs and moussaka that Ishizu had served had been among Rebecca's favorites when they lived in Cairo.

"Yo, Yuge, you okay?"

Yugi turned to Joey. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's Rebecca I'm worried about."

Joey's expression became more solemn. "Yeah, poor kid. How's the professor?"

Yugi shrugged. "The same. He doesn't really know where he is or who Rebecca is." Yugi watched as Mokuba got up from the table to use the bathroom, temporarily leaving the seat next to her empty. "Would you guys excuse me a minute? I wanna go talk to her."

They nodded, and Téa patted his arm before he got up and moved to the seat Mokuba had just vacated. "Hey, _Imouto-chan_, how you holding up?"

She gave him a wan smile. "I'm okay."

"It's okay if you're not okay, you know. We're all here for you."

She shook her head. "This is your day. You deserve to be happy for the Pharaoh."

"That doesn't mean I can't be sad with you, too." He slipped an arm around her shoulder. "Your grandpa is my mentor. I miss him, too, you know."

She nodded, tearing up. "Oh Yugi, what's going to happen to him?"

"We're going to take good care of him, that's what's going to happen to him. We'll find a place in San Francisco, someplace really good, and we'll visit him a lot. You can see him every day if you like."

"Not if I have to move to Boston."

Yugi squeezed her shoulder. "No way that's gonna happen. I won't let them get custody of you, Rebecca. I won't. We'll get you emancipated, or I'll become your guardian. Whatever it takes."

"They'll fight it in court, I know they will. They've always thought Grandpa was raising me wrong by letting me to go to college early and stuff. What if we don't win?"

"You don't have to win."

Yugi looked behind him, surprised to see Kaiba listening to their conversation. "What do you mean?"

Kaiba shrugged. "All you need is an injunction to keep them from removing her while the court case is proceeding. Then you can stall. In two years, she'll be sixteen. Add that to the fact that she's a college graduate and self-sufficient, and there's not a court in the country that wouldn't emancipate her. Time is on your side."

Yugi raised his eyebrows. "That's right. You were emancipated when you were sixteen, weren't you?"

"That, and I got custody of Mokuba. There were some intermediary steps on the way, but so long as you have an injunction to maintain the status quo in the meantime, the rest is details."

Rebecca sniffed. "But that was in Japan, and you have enough money to hire all the right lawyers."

"It's not that different here. Emancipation is even more lenient in California, where there are hundreds of child actors who need to keep Mommy and Daddy from siphoning off their money before they're old enough to take charge of it themselves."

"And again, they _have_ money," Rebecca said. "It's gonna take everything my grandfather has to take care of him, and while I may be making plenty to support myself, I'm not making enough to support a bunch of lawyers, too. My grandparents will be able to outspend me, and we all know that whoever has the most money wins."

Yugi clenched his jaw, wanting to argue with her cynicism, but he knew she had a point. "I've got money, and so does my grandpa. And I bet Pegasus would help. He wouldn't want you hauled off to Boston, either."

Kaiba snorted. "Please. I wouldn't trust Pegasus's lawyers as far as I could throw the Kaiba Dome. They probably all got their law degrees from Clown College." He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up. "The lawyers who handle Mokuba's American guardianship issues will have an emancipation request and a petition to make Yugi your interim guardian filed by the time we get back to San Francisco. And they'll be pushing for an injunction before the ink is dry on any motions your grandparents might make."

Yugi's jaw dropped in surprise, but Rebecca's response was a little more forceful. She flung herself out of her chair, knocking it over in the process, and threw her arms around Kaiba's waist. "Thank you!"

He took a step back, looking down at her head buried in his chest as if he had no idea what to do. After a moment, he put his hands on her shoulders and extricated himself from her grasp, but more gently than Yugi would have expected. Folding his arms, Kaiba said, "Don't go turning this into some big emotional scene. I just don't want to deal with months of Mokuba moping if his little girlfriend gets hauled off to the other side of the country."

Rebecca backed away from him, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm not his girlfriend."

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Riiiiight."

Mokuba returned then, taking in the strange scene. "Rebecca? Are you okay? What'd I miss?"

Rebecca then threw herself at him just like she'd done to the older Kaiba moments before. "Your brother's gonna help with my emancipation and custody fight with my other grandparents!"

Unlike his brother, Mokuba returned the embrace with ease. "Well, _duh_. We're not gonna let you move away, Rebecca. You're my best friend."

Kaiba shook his head with a look of supreme skepticism as Yugi stood up and moved to his side. "Thank you, Kaiba. That's a really generous offer. It means a lot to Rebecca, and to me, too."

"I told you, I'm not doing it for Rebecca, and I'm sure as hell not doing it for you. I just don't want to listen to months of Mokuba's whining."

Yugi smiled and crossed his arms. "Riiiiight."

* * *

_Where the hell is everybody?_

At some point after dinner, everyone had drifted off in separate directions, and Joey couldn't seem to find anyone. Yugi had disappeared after his talk with Rebecca, and he wasn't with Téa, either, because Pegasus had cornered her to discuss whatever plans he had in store for them now that Ramesses was no longer an issue. Gramps and Duke were still in the dining room talking shop, and Joey had listened in for a while, Yugi's offer of someday opening their own game shop together in the back of his mind, but it wasn't long before he was restless. Excusing himself, he left the dining room and went searching for Mai, or Yugi, or Tristan, or Serenity, or _anyone_, but they all seemed to have completely evaporated.

He walked through Ishizu's formal sitting room and poked his head out through the French doors that opened onto the back terrace. At first, it appeared deserted as well, but then he caught sight of Kaiba off to the side of the terrace, sitting alone in the dark in a lounge chair, his arms folded in his usual arrogant way as he gazed out into the gardens. Joey started to pull his head back inside—Kaiba wasn't exactly who he'd had in mind when he'd gone looking for someone to hang out with—but something about the expression on Kaiba's face gave him pause. He'd never seen the rich bastard look so… _lost_.

Before he could think better of it, Joey stepped out onto the terrace. "Well, well. Look who's still slumming it here with the commoners. I'da thought you'd be back in your ritzy hotel suite by now."

Kaiba didn't even bother looking at him. "Mokuba wanted to spend more time with his 'best friend.'"

Joey leaned back against the wall beside Kaiba's chair, crossing his arms. "You know, that was a pretty decent thing you did, offering to let Rebecca use your lawyers. Come to think of it, so was doing the funeral, and that without even ranting about how it's all nonsense, none of it is real, blah blah blah. You'd better be careful, Kaiba, or people'll start thinking you're almost human."

He snorted. "Please. That one-hour funeral saved me from having to listen to who knows how many hours of yet another saccharine speech from Yugi, and probably Gardner, too. And if Rebecca gets hauled off to Boston, it'd be _months_ of having to endure Mokuba's teen angst. No thank you. I've got better things to do with my time."

"Right. Far be it from you to do something decent just because it's the right thing to do."

"Is there a reason you're bothering me, Wheeler?"

"Nope, no reason. I was looking for Mai, actually. You haven't seen her, have you?"

"If she's smart, she went to go find herself a real man to date."

Joey sniffed, but let it slide. As Kaiba putdowns went, it was pretty mild. And speaking of dates…. "So where's Sara?"

Kaiba fairly snarled. "How should I know? I'm not her keeper."

Joey raised his eyebrows. _So that's what's bugging him._ Without changing his own conversational tone, he said, "I dunno, seems like you two was getting pretty chummy there. Considering what a major pain in the ass you are, finding a girl who can even stand you is pretty huge. You should hang onto this one."

"I don't remember asking your opinion."

"I'm just saying. She's smart and kinda hot, and for some reason I can't begin to wrap my brain around, she's actually into you. So what's your problem? You've got more money than God, so it can't be the distance. Is it just that you're too good for mere mortal women?"

Even in the dark, he could see Kaiba's jaw clench. "Shut up, Wheeler."

"No, I'm serious. And then there's the whole Blue-Eyes thing—" Joey snapped his mouth closed when Kaiba's entire body stiffened. "That's it, isn't it? That's why you're avoiding her, because she's connected to all that ancient Egyptian stuff you're so busy pretending has nothing to do with you!"

Kaiba stood up and faced him, glaring. "Listen, Wheeler, I'm not one of your little gang of losers. We're not friends—you can't stand me and I can't stand you. So stay the hell out of my personal business."

Joey didn't back down. "You're right, Kaiba. We're not friends. But we are allies. We don't gotta like it, and you can deny it until your head explodes, but it is what it is. And allies gotta have each other's backs. That's why you're doing what you're doing for Rebecca—and don't gimme that bullshit about it all being for Mokuba. You're helping her because she's your ally and you've got her back. So I'm gonna do the same for you that I'd do for Yugi or Tristan or anyone else whose back I got, and I'm gonna tell you when you're being stupid. 'Cause Kaiba? Man, are you being stupid."

"Well, you are the foremost expert in stupidity. I'll grant you that."

Joey ignored the dig. "Everyone knows you care about this girl. She's the only person besides Mokuba you don't act like you're better than, so the way I figure, you must like her a hell of a lot. Are you really gonna walk away just because three thousand years ago a girl who looked like her had some kind of connection to a guy who looked like you? What the hell difference does it make? You're both here _now_. Does it matter how you got here?"

"Do you even listen to yourself when you talk? I know you and that little runt you tag along behind like the subservient puppy that you are think everything that happened in that 'memory world' or whatever you wanna call it is your destiny, but I'm sure as hell not gonna let that nonsense rule _my_ life. The past doesn't control me, Wheeler. I make my own fate."

"By running the other way?" Joey scoffed. "Oh, yeah, nothing's controlling you."

"I don't have time for this."

He tried to walk away, but Joey stepped in front of him. "You wanna know why I'm not some lousy drunk like my old man?"

"If I told you I couldn't care less, would that shut you up?"

"Nope. The reason I'm not some lousy drunk is because I don't try and kid myself that I'm above it. Alcohol would _so_ have me by the balls, and I know it. So I don't go out drinking to prove I'm 'in control,' 'cause I'm not. And when I do have a beer once in a while, it's only when my best friends are there to tell me enough. Now, maybe to you that makes me a loser, because I actually have to rely on somebody else. But all I know is, I'm not stumbling home at three A.M. every night, passing out in my own puke, and blaming my sorry-ass mess of a life on a little girl's medical problems, so it feels like winning to me."

"And I care about this why?"

"Because ancient Egypt is your alcohol. And the more you pretend you're above it, the more it has you by the balls." When Kaiba rolled his eyes in response, Joey arched an eyebrow at him. "You don't think so? Then ask yourself this: if you're running away from something just because it has connections to the past, then who's controlling who here?"

Kaiba looked like he could spit venom. "Spare me your righteous sermons. You don't know the first thing about power or control. You can't even begin to understand me or my life, so stop pretending you have a clue!"

"What, because I'm not some rich CEO and I haven't happened to beat you in Duel Monsters—_yet_—that makes me too simple to understand the big, complex Kaiba mind?"

"Pretty much. Just look at your deck! It's all about _luck_, not strategy."

"Because of my _deck_? Are you freakin' kidding me?" Joey snorted. "Yeah, you're right, what would a dumb schmuck like me know about having to be in control? Like, I dunno, spending my entire childhood getting in the way of a rat bastard father, taking all his shit on myself to protect a younger sibling. Stop me if anything starts to sound familiar."

Kaiba grabbed Joey by the front of his shirt, almost yanking him off his feet. "You are _nothing_ like me, you got that?"

"So what, you gonna hit me? Don't you have some flunky on the payroll to punch people for you?"

"I fight my own battles!"

"Then bring it on, rich boy. I've taken guys bigger than you. But even if you could pound me into tomorrow, it still won't make me any less right."

With a grunt, Kaiba pushed him backwards, brushing off his hands as if they'd been contaminated by something foul. "You're not worth the effort." Then he stormed past Joey and into the house.

Joey let out a huff of air, dusting himself off as the door slammed behind Kaiba. "You're welcome."


	3. Free

**3. Free**

Kaiba slammed the door behind him, furious. Who the _hell_ did Wheeler think he was? He—

"Well, that was quite the row."

He stopped short. Across the room stood Sara, watching him with an expression that hovered between analytical and amused. He clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palms. "Were you _listening_ to us?"

She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. "Don't be daft! You were outside. How could I be listening? But I could hardly miss the fact that you practically chucked him off the sodding terrace. You were standing in front of a rather large window, in case you hadn't noticed."

Kaiba took a breath, trying to get his racing heart back under control. She'd only seen them through the window; she hadn't actually heard what they'd been arguing _about_. "Yeah, well, Wheeler's an idiot. Every day I _don't_ toss him off a balcony is a testament to my patience."

"Oh, right, patience of a saint, you have." She cocked her head. "I think I've finally worked out what your problem with him is."

"I just told you what my problem with him is: he's an idiot."

"No, your problem with him is that he's _not_ an idiot, and you need him to be."

Kaiba crossed his arms. "You wanna explain that in a way that actually makes sense?"

She grinned, shaking her head. "You spend all this time and energy making sure you are an absolute success, that you're the best at everything you do—your business, dueling…. The fact that there is a duelist better than you eats away at you, but it's also a challenge that drives you. You _will_ be the best someday. But Joey, he threatens your worldview. He's not wealthy, not a businessman, not particularly brilliant or successful by any measure you use. He doesn't even have the decency to be bothered by the fact that he can't beat his own best friend at Duel Monsters."

"Right. He's a loser. If this is your big epiphany, I could've saved you some time."

"No, that's not it at all, don't you see? It's his _refusal_ to be a 'loser' that gets under your skin. It's the fact that he has the gall to live his life with none of the things that are so important to you, and still find it fulfilling. He has a passion and an exuberance that simply do not conform to your concept of what a 'loser' should be. If he behaved the way a failure ought, you could just write him off, but he doesn't, and it challenges everything you believe about yourself. Because if Joey Wheeler isn't a failure, if he can be—dare I say it?—_successful_ without having obtained a single thing you've decided is necessary to be a success, then what does it say about you and everything you've built your life on?"

Now it was Kaiba's turn to roll his eyes. "Do I have 'please inflict me with your pop psychology' written on my forehead today?"

"No, but turnabout is fair play."

He crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at her. "Excuse me?"

"You told me that I attack you when I'm feeling uncomfortable with myself."

"That wasn't pop psychology, it was an observation. And it begs the question, why are you feeling uncomfortable with yourself now?"

She let out a huff of air. "I'm not attacking you, Seto. Quite the opposite, actually. I just…." She exhaled again, looking frustrated as she searched for what to say. "I'm not saying this to you because I don't think you're successful. Anyone with half a brain can see that you are a wildly successful man. But you need to know that it's not for the reasons you think. The wealth, the Duel Monsters titles, being the youngest, the brightest, the very _best_ at everything you undertake, all of that is just trappings. As laudable as those accomplishments are, they aren't what matters. They aren't what make you a…." She faltered, then looked down, as if embarrassed.

"What?" he asked, curiosity getting the better of him despite himself.

She looked up at him again, brushing a wayward stand of hair away from her eyes. "You're a good man, Seto. For some reason you seem to think that's a weakness, so you pretend you're not, but it isn't. It's a strength. And the greatest proof that you're a good man? Your greatest success? It's Mokuba."

This brought him up short. "Mokuba?"

"Everything you've done—the money, the takeover from your fa—I mean, your _step_father—it was all for Mokuba. And look at him! He is a happy, fairly well-adjusted young man, and this despite all the madness and the monsters and all of it! You did that, Seto. And Joey Wheeler can never threaten that, do you understand? The fact that he can be happy and love his life doesn't speak one way or another to the value of _your_ life, because you don't need all the trappings any more than he does. All you need—all you've ever needed—is Mokuba."

Wheeler's comparison of his own relationship with his sister came to Kaiba's mind, and he pushed it away in annoyance. _I am _not_ like him._ But that wasn't really what Sara was getting at, and he didn't know what to say to her. Normally, he would brush off any attempt to attribute something he'd done to a motive other than strategic value, but he couldn't brush this off. She wasn't wrong, not exactly, even if the stuff about his issues with Wheeler were completely off base. Mokuba was indeed the center of his life, though perhaps not to the extent she implied. She seemed to need to believe this was all that really mattered to him, that the other things were a means to that particular end, nothing more. And in the very deepest recesses of his heart, he wanted her to think well of him.

_Everyone knows you care about this girl._

He clenched his fists again. _Damn Joey Wheeler and his idiotic theories!_

When he didn't say anything, Sara looked down again, sheepish once more. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm telling you this. It's none of my business. You've made it clear that we… that whatever we had… was not a relationship as such. I shouldn't pretend to know you better than I do."

He frowned. "_I've_ made it clear? You're the one who ran away."

Her head jerked up. "You didn't exactly stop me."

"No, I didn't."

She slumped her shoulders, defeated. "You had no reason to, I suppose."

"You said you couldn't be a part of 'this insanity.' I can relate to that."

"Fat lot of good that did me." She shook her head with a rueful chuckle. "The phrase 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' springs to mind. I don't know what to make of everything I saw yesterday. Of what I _did_, getting that dragon of yours to defend… oh, bugger. I don't even want to _think_ who that was she defended. It's too much to take in."

He let out a breath. "Sara, I'm sorry you got dragged into this. I really am."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Did I hear that correctly? An apology, from Seto Kaiba?"

"That wasn't an apology. It's not my _fault_ you got involved. But I'm sorry nevertheless."

"I see." She was giving him one of those half-smirks that he found both annoying and extremely appealing. It faded after a moment, and there was a long pause before she took in a deep breath, as if fortifying herself. "Yugi asked me to transfer to Berkeley and study with him. Thinks I should learn more about… all of it, I suppose. And having both lost our mentors…."

His eyes widened. _Berkeley… just across the bay._ "Will you?"

"I… no. I don't think I'm ready for that. A part of me wants to just chuck the whole thing and go back to Chinese studies or… I don't know. Wait tables in a pub. Anything but _this_. I based my entire career on something I don't understand and on a mentor who turned out to be a complete lunatic. I think… I need time to regroup, to work out what I really want to do next. I've decided to go back to England, at least for the semester. With some time and space, maybe I'll work out how much of this I want to understand."

He swallowed his disappointment. "Then you still want no part of any of it?"

She replied without hesitation. "Bloody right, I don't. I just wish I could be free from the whole mess."

That answer hurt more than he cared to admit. His eyes downcast, he nodded in acceptance.

"Don't you?"

He looked up again, then snorted. "Every day of my life for as long as I've known Yugi Mutou."

"And yet, here we are." She sighed. "Seto, if you hate this so much, why do you get involved? Why did you come here, to Egypt? Why did you… do whatever it is you lot did back there."

"I don't 'get involved' any more than you did. I get dragged in because someone goes after me, and I won't stand by while someone attacks my company or my brother or—" He stopped short, unwilling to finish.

"Or?" She looked…anxious? Hopeful? What was she expecting from him? She toyed with the strand of faux pearls at her throat, her blue eyes, white hair, and pail skin looking unnaturally bright in contrast to her black funeral dress. It was disconcerting how the somber attire somehow made her simultaneously look even more like Kisara, and nothing like her at all.

_What am I doing? Who is she to me? _He grunted in irritation. "Or nothing. He went after my company. He almost killed Mokuba. What more reason do I need?"

"Right, then." There was a slight frost to her voice that wasn't there before. "I should be going. I really need to get back to Cairo tomorrow."

"Sara—" He stopped, not sure what he wanted to say to her. He just knew he didn't want her to go. "Exactly how much space do you need?"

She looked puzzled. "Excuse me?"

"You said you're going to England to get time and space, but how much time and space? If I were to have business in London in the near future, could I see you?"

Her eyebrows went up in surprise. "I thought we agreed this whole thing was insane." She gave him a troubled look. "Is it even me you want to see? Or is it _her_?"

He shifted his jaw, turning the question back on her. "And if you said yes, would it be to me or to _him_?"

She closed her eyes. "I don't really know."

"Neither do I."

"Which is exactly why this is madness." She opened her eyes. "Where does that leave us, Seto, if we can't even answer that?"

"I don't know." He met her eye, however, determined not to let it go at that. "But it seems to me we can only find the answer if we address the question."

She considered this a moment, then smirked at him. "Maybe you're more Humphrey Bogart than I thought."

"What?" He blinked in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?"

She laughed, her face lighting up in a way that made it hard for him to remember exactly why any of it was such a problem. "It means I would like it if you came to see me in England, Seto. I would like that very much."

* * *

Joey sat huddled on the lounge chair Kaiba had vacated, wishing he were wearing something warmer than just his suit jacket. The temperature had dipped quickly once the sun had gone down, and the jacket afforded little protection against the brisk night air. He would've killed for some hot chocolate or one of those patio heaters right about now. Or better yet, to just be able to go inside. But he was trapped. After Kaiba had stormed off, Joey had followed after, intending to go inside and continue his search for Mai. But when he got to the door, he saw Kaiba and Sara engaged in a somewhat tense conversation in the sitting room. Not wanting to interrupt them, he'd looked for another way back inside, but everything else was locked, so he'd retreated to the lounge chair to wait Kaiba and Sara out. 

"There you are!"

Joey looked up to see Mai standing in the doorway.

"Here _I _am? You're the one who disappeared. I've been looking all over for you!"

"Yeah, I can see you're looking really hard." She smirked. "What are you doing out here? It's kinda nippy, don't you think?"

He swung his legs over the side of the lounge chair and stood up, giving her a salacious grin. "Guess you'll just have to come over here and warm me up."

She rolled her eyes, but walked up to him and slipped her arms around his waist under his jacket as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She felt warm as she pressed against him, and he breathed in the scent of her favorite exotic perfume, its familiarity inviting. But everything else about her tonight was foreign. Her black funeral dress had a much higher neckline than anything he'd ever seen her in, and the skirt went well past her knees. Her hair, which she normally wore loose and tousled, was swept up and clipped into a tight knot at the back of her head. She did have on the tall, black, spiked-heel boots she'd recently bought on Rodeo Drive, but without the miniskirt to set them off, they did nothing to counteract the severity of the rest of her outfit. Not that she didn't look gorgeous—he was pretty sure she'd look gorgeous in a burlap sack—but it was just not _Mai_.

She leaned in and kissed him, then pulled back, her nose wrinkled. "You're like ice! What are you doing out here, anyway?"

He gave a rueful shake of his head. "I got stuck out here. I came out looking for you, but found Kaiba instead. He was moping over Sara because he's a big jerk who can't admit he likes her, so I told him to stop being an idiot and just go after her. He threw a hissy fit and stalked off, but when I went to go inside to look for you, there he was with Sara. I didn't want to interrupt them, so I just stayed out here."

"Well, they're not there now, so—" She stopped and arched an eyebrow at him. "Wait. Did you just say you did something nice for _Kaiba_? Who are you, and what have you done with Joey?"

"I know. It makes me feel all dirty inside." He grimaced and gave a dramatic shudder.

"So what brought on this sudden attack of maturity?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. I just couldn't stand watching him screw himself over. I mean, he's a big, fathead jerk and all that, but he's _our_ big, fathead jerk, you know? Besides, it's always a pleasure telling him he's being stupid."

"Okay, there's the Joey I know."

He grinned at her. "So how about you? Where you been since dinner?"

"I had to make a phone call."

"To who? Everyone we know is here."

She gave him a strange look. "Valon, actually. I figured since he was the one who gave us the name 'Monarch,' the least I could do was tell him we got the guy."

"And?" He could hear in her voice there was more to it than that.

"And he won the tournament in Tahiti. Oh, and I got to wake him up again. There's a twelve-hour time difference between Egypt and Tahiti."

He took her chin in his hand. "Mai."

She lowered her eyes, looking somewhere in the vicinity of his collarbone. "I guess I was feeling a little guilty. I… was kinda hard on him in London, even after I figured he probably didn't have anything to do with the nightmares or what happened to Yugi."

"He was the one who dragged you into the whole Orichalcos mess," Joey pointed out, his arm encircling her once more.

"No, I only have myself to blame for that." She looked up at him. "Valon, he was a victim of Dartz's manipulations, same as I was."

"Okay, but why the guilt trip now? You weren't feeling this way when we saw him in Tahiti."

"I dunno. Probably because… well, I had the dream again last night. Not the Orichalcos duel. The hourglass one."

Joey tried to swallow, but it was difficult because his heart had suddenly relocated to the middle of his throat. "Say what? I thought after that nightmare duel… and then we beat Ramesses…. Why didn't you wake me, or—?"

"Don't get your shorts in a knot, Wheeler." She gave him a look of supreme annoyance, but then her face softened into a smile. "This time, it was a good thing."

He frowned. "How do you figure?"

"Because when you guys all came out to the beach below me? This time, when I called for you, you heard me."

He raised his eyebrows. "We did?"

"Mm hm. And you all came to help me. You, Serenity, Yugi, Téa, Duke, Tristan…. You all promised to free me, whatever it took."

"And did we?" he asked, pulling her a little closer.

She shook her head. "You didn't have to. Because as soon as I knew you were there, that I wasn't alone, I realized that it wasn't Marik who made the hourglass prison. It was _me_. And as soon as I knew that I was responsible for my own prison, I was free."

He sighed, a warm feeling of relief washing over him. "Wow. That sounds kinda huge. So what happened after that?"

She smiled up at him with a look that made him feel like he might melt into a pool at her feet. Slowly, she started swaying back and forth, guiding him into something like a slow waltz. "You and I danced to no music on a cliff above the ocean."

He made a face, wrinkling his nose in a mock grimace. "That's just way too sappy. Who would ever do something so lame?"

"No one I know." She tightened her arms around him and kissed him again, a long, slow kiss that made it hard for him to breathe even after she pulled back. "I love you, Joey Wheeler."

His eyes widened. "Did you just say that out loud?"

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Wow. I like the way that sounded. Say it again."

"Don't push your luck, lamebrain."

"I dunno, I'm feeling pretty lucky." He reached up and toyed with the clip holding up her hair. "Not that you aren't incredibly hot, but this new look isn't part of the whole new attitude, is it?"

She made another face. "Oh, please. I feel like a pilgrim in this getup. I just wanted to make sure I did the whole Japanese wake thing right."

"You did. It's perfect, but it's not you." He tugged at the clip, pulling it out so that her hair tumbled down, loose over her shoulders. He nodded. "Much better. You look—"

"Free?"

He smiled. "Yeah. You look free."


	4. Above Ground

**4. Above Ground**

Bakura looked down from the narrow balcony off of Marik's upstairs bedroom, a slight smile on his lips as he watched Joey and Mai dancing on the terrace below him. He turned away when they kissed, blushing slightly and feeling a little guilty for the voyeurism. He averted his gaze to Ishizu's spectacular garden, which was artfully lit with many spotlights to highlight the various native Egyptian trees, shrubs, and flowers. His eyes avoided the spot at the bottom of the stairs where he'd dueled a mind-controlled Ishizu just thirty-six hours earlier, however.

"I had a feeling I'd find you here."

Bakura didn't turn as Marik came up to stand beside him, snorting as he looked down at the terrace. "You're not watching them, are you? I mean, in principle I think everyone should be able to live how they want, but personally, I find the whole concept of straight sex just disgusting."

Bakura looked sideways at him. "This from the one who kissed me while going 'round in a girl's body."

"It was just a rental while mine was in the shop."

"I'm sure Téa would greatly appreciate the sentiment. And would be happy to express to you just how much."

Marik scoffed, not bothered by the implied threat. He balanced a plate and mug on the wide stone balustrade. "I brought you some coffee and umm ali."

"Umm ali?" Bakura smiled as he slid the plate with the fragrant Egyptian bread pudding toward him. He took a large bite and closed his eyes as if in rapture. "Mmmm, delicious. Thank you. Although it is about two years late."

Marik frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Umm ali and coffee. That was the pretext you and Ishizu used to invite me to the house the night I officially began 'courting' her, right? And as I recall, I never did get any."

A wicked smirk curled on Marik's lips. "As _I _recall, you most certainly did."

"Any _dessert_, I mean." Bakura rolled his eyes and took another bite and followed with a sip of Turkish coffee.

"You got me instead. A much better deal, don't you think?" Bakura looked from the plate to Marik and back again, as if considering. Marik groaned in mock pain. "Jilted for some umm ali."

"You know I would never jilt you over umm ali, Marik. Shu cream, perhaps, but never umm ali." He licked his lips at the thought of his favorite Japanese pastry.

Marik shook his head and snickered. "I should've known you'd pick food over me. I don't know how anyone can eat like you do and not be the size of a house. You attacked dinner like a caveman at his first kill in weeks. Last night, too."

Bakura chewed his current mouthful a little more slowly. He swallowed, regarding the remaining umm ali on his plate with a pensive look. "I always used to be ravenous whenever I woke up after one of my… blackouts." He sniffed. "Ravenous. That's somewhat appropriate, isn't it?"

Marik put a hand on his arm. "This was different, Ry. It wasn't him, it was you. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes. Although I don't know if that's comforting or even more disturbing. It was one thing to be able to blame him completely…"

"You didn't do anything wrong, so there's nothing to blame on anyone."

Bakura looked into Marik's eyes. "But I wasn't exactly myself, was I?"

Marik huffed out an exasperated breath. "Yes, you were! That's the point, Ry! You _can_ be powerful! You _can_ be strong. You can even be fucking _pissed_. None of those things make you him or even anything like him. Yes, he was all those things, but it's what he did with that power and anger that made him a sadistic bastard. You, on the other hand, used those things to save Ishizu and to defend Yugi against an attack from a _god_. You did what you had to do, and then you were done. No vengeance, no spite. So how can you think you're remotely like him? If anything, you're more like Yugi."

Bakura nodded. "I know, Marik, I do. In my head, I know this is true. But it still is a bit terrifying to be in that place, to feel all those things that I know come from him."

"You came to Egypt to face exactly those fears, didn't you? And now you have and you _won_." He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated show of annoyance. "You're not going to make me drag out the bones again, are you?"

Bakura smiled. "No, thank you." He took in a long, cleansing breath, then slowly let it out again. "I'm fine, Marik, really. I know playing Diabound was the right thing to do. I just… have to get used to feeling like I can."

"See, you are like Yugi, with all his issues about the damn god cards."

"He had to come to his own acceptance of his darker half, no different from us. In some ways, it's even more difficult for him. Love is so much more complicated than hate."

"Yes, it is." Marik leaned forward, resting his elbows on the balustrade as he looked out over the garden below, a contemplative expression settling onto his face. "I've always loved my sister's gardens, both the one here and the one at the museum. All of the things that are so beautiful about Egypt, all in one place. All the things I never saw or even dreamed existed when I had to live my entire childhood underground." He pointed out different plants and trees in the garden. "The Acacia tree, the date palm, the lotus. I could spend hours just sitting on this balcony, or walking down the paths, or eating lunch by the fountain at the museum. These gardens are home to me." He sighed. "I'm going to miss them."

Bakura raised his eyebrows and looked at Marik. "Miss them? Are you leaving?"

"It's time, Ry."

"What do you mean, 'it's time?'"

"We can't stay here; you know that. Unless you're planning on marrying my sister come September."

"But that's still eight months away. We still have plenty of time—"

"No, we don't. You came to Egypt to understand your darker half, and to come to terms with it. You've done that. There's really nothing left to accomplish here."

"But, your family!"

"My family has known this day was coming since my very first crush. Hell, Ishizu with that damn Necklace probably knew years before that. You and I, we've been biding our time, mostly because we're young and we didn't want to rush into anything. But I don't need any more time. I know what I want." He looked into Bakura's eyes. "I want to be with you."

Bakura traced a finger down Marik's cheek. "I did come to Egypt to understand and to accept my darker half. To own it, even. But I thought it would be a few weeks, a month, maybe. I never expected it to change my life the way it has. I never expected to fall in love. But I did. I fell in love with Egypt, and I fell in love with you."

Marik reached for him and pulled him into a kiss. It was hungry and passionate, as was everything Marik did in life, but to Bakura, it felt bittersweet, too. Marik tasted like moussaka, Turkish coffee, and umm ali.

He tasted like Egypt.

Bakura rested his forehead against Marik's. "How can you bear it? You love it here. _I _love it here."

"An unrequited love, I'm afraid. However much we love Egypt, Egypt doesn't love us. This isn't exactly news to either of us."

"No, but I wanted to give you at least until September. Eight more months."

Marik backed away from him slightly and crossed his arms, his eyes flashing in anger. "For what? So whackos like Ramesses—no, _Julius_—can worm their way in by separating us? I'm not willing to let that happen again. No more running away to Greece, no more hiding. Just… no more." He leaned against Bakura once more. "I'm tired, Ry. I don't want to live underground anymore."

Bakura closed his eyes, sadness washing over him. Sadness for the childhood Marik had been denied. Sadness for the home he was being denied now. But he was right. "I'm so sorry, Marik. You're right, you deserve better than living in hiding. _We_ deserve better. I love you too much to keep you in the shadows."

They kissed again—a long, slow kiss that filled every dark corner of Bakura's mind as he felt Marik's consciousness flood into his. Even after two years, it still gave him a rush whenever that happened. When they broke for air, Marik pulled back to look at him. "So where to, then? England?"

Bakura made a face. "Are you mad? The food is dreadful!"

Marik laughed, a deep and warm sound. "Ah, yes, I forgot. It's All About the Food. So fine, if England's out, then where? You gave up your Japanese citizenship."

"Well, you know I've always wanted to try San Francisco. I rather think it would be an interesting place to live. Lots of Japanese culture, and probably some Egyptian culture, too. I'm sure we'll feel at home there."

"It was interesting, what little I saw of it when I was there last week. I suspect I'll enjoy it more when I'm not some lowlife's puppet."

Bakura nodded, but pushed that thought away for happier ones. "And it's definitely a little more friendly to couples like us. There were all those weddings in the news a while back."

Marik's eyes widened. "Ryou Bakura, are you proposing to me?"

Bakura blushed, but then gave Marik a mock scowl. "You dishonor me! I'm a betrothed man!"

Marik leaned in and nuzzled his ear. "Yes, so I hear. And as honorable as you are, I'm sure there's nothing I could do that would tempt you away from your fiancée."

"Of course not." But it came out as a hoarse whisper as Marik's lips traveled down from his ear to his throat. Bakura shivered. "Right, then. So how shall I break my poor betrothed's heart?"

Marik pulled back from him with a derisive snort. "Please. You're engaged to Ishizu Ishtar. _She's_ going to break _your_ heart. You see, she's just too Egyptian to ever settle for a _foreigner_. Devastated, you'll leave the country, a desolate shell of a man. Now, as Ishizu's brother, I will be furious that she would end a relationship I spent two years cultivating for her. Foreigner or not, you were a good prospect for marriage, and a friend of the family. And worst of all, how could she shame the Ishtar name by remaining—I can barely stand to utter the word—_single_? So I, paragon of propriety that I am, will also leave the country in my righteous indignation."

Bakura blinked, eyeing the long hooded cloak Marik was wearing over the hot-pink muscle shirt he'd changed into immediately after the funeral. "Paragon of propriety? You look like you stepped out of one of my RPGs!"

"Nevertheless, I'm going to be most put out at my sister for spurning your affections. It will cause a small scandal, of course, but you _are_ a foreigner, so she will come out of it all right. Better than if, say, her fiancé were to run off with her brother."

"Good point." Bakura turned back toward the balustrade and the gardens below. "I'm going to miss the gardens as well. And the umm ali."

"You'd better finish this one before it gets cold."

Bakura took another bite of the Egyptian dessert, savoring its rich, nutty flavor. "You know, I rather think with all the cultural diversity in San Francisco, we can probably find decent umm ali."

"Probably. And I know they have a whole Japanese quarter. You should have no trouble getting your shu cream, either."

"True." Bakura looked over his shoulder toward the house. "But your family is here. We shan't be able to replace them so easily."

"No," Marik agreed. "But we do have other family, you know." He jerked his head in the opposite direction, down toward the terrace below them.

Bakura looked down. There was no one there—Joey and Mai must have retreated inside—but Bakura knew what Marik was getting at. "Yes, I suppose you're right. We do have other family."

"Maybe instead of freezing out here on the balcony, we should go inside and join them."

Bakura nodded. "Yes, let's."

He started to walk toward the door back into Marik's room, but Marik stopped him. "Don't forget your umm ali."

"I won't be needing it." Bakura hooked his arm through Marik's. "I already got a much better deal."


	5. Mementos

**5. Mementos**

Yugi was sitting on the floor gazing at the elaborately carved ebony box in his hands when he heard Tea call out his name. Looking up at the door, he called back to her. "I'm in here! Ishizu's study!"

A moment later, she poked her head in the door. "Oh good, someplace quiet." She came into the room and flopped down on the leather couch behind where Yugi was sitting. "I swear, I have never met anyone who likes to hear himself talk as much as Pegasus."

"Not even Joey?"

"Not even _Kaiba_. He went on and on and _on_ about the next few tournaments he wants you guys to enter, never mind the fact that we went over all this in London already."

Yugi put down the box he'd been studying and leaned back against her legs to look up at her. "At least we know we all still have jobs. He could've just decided that with Ramesses out of the picture, he didn't need to keep us all on the payroll." He frowned and turned around so he could look at her properly instead of upside-down. "He is keeping all of us, right? The non-duelists, too?"

"Sounds like it. Lord knows he's giving me plenty to do, and he said he was working on getting Serenity signed on as tournament medic again for the U.S. Nationals in April. Maybe even for the World Championship in Tokyo this summer. And he mentioned security a couple of times, too."

"Well, that's good." He chewed on his lip a moment. "Pegasus spent some time at the hospital where they're holding Professor Julius, didn't he? Did he say how he's doing?"

Téa flashed him a look of warning. "He didn't leave you any choice, Yugi. You had to end the Dark Game."

"I know. I'm not feeling guilty. I mean, I hate that it came to that, but you're right, I had to end the duel. I'm just wondering if it's looking like he's going to come out of it."

She shook her head. "Pegasus said he's completely out of his mind. They had to strap him down because he kept scratching at himself, shouting how 'they' were all over him. Swatting at things like he was in a room full of hornets. It sounds pretty ugly."

Yugi shuddered, remembering his other self's words—_One way or another, the shadows will have their Penalty Game._

Téa leaned toward him, propping up her elbows on her knees and resting her chin on her hands. "Do you think now we'll actually get to go to a tournament where you guys can just, you know, play the game and have fun? No psychos, no Dark Games… just dueling?"

Yugi sighed. "I don't know. I think we made a mistake before, assuming that because the Millennium Items were gone, and the other me and the Spirit of the Ring were gone, that the darkness would be gone forever, too. We can't assume that just because we beat Ramesses that there isn't some other person out there looking for a way to use the shadows. Darkness exists in more forms than we'd like to believe."

"There's a happy thought," she said dryly.

"No, but it doesn't have to be a miserable thought, either. It just… is. And we can keep standing between that like we have since we were fifteen. But for now? I sure hope the game can just be a game. That it can be _fun_. I would really like that."

"Me too." She slid down off the couch to sit next to him on the floor, picking up the ebony box that was lying forgotten beside him. "So what's this? You were looking at it when I came in."

"It's a game the ancient Egyptians played called Senet." He took the box from her. "We're not really sure how it's played, but archaeologists think that it was a two-player game, with each player getting seven game pieces that were kept in these little drawers in the side of the box. And see these squares? Three rows of ten squares each? They think that players would try to get from one corner of the board to the opposite in an _s _pattern." He traced the trail from one corner across one row, up to the next row and across the opposite way, then up again to the last row and across to the far corner. "There may even be spiritual significance attached to the game. Traveling across the board represents traveling through the underworld to the afterlife."

"Kinda like the Ceremonial Battle?" Téa wrinkled her nose and studied the box. "You think Atem played this game?"

"I know he did." Yugi put his hand on the smooth ebony. "This is from his tomb."

Téa's eyes widened. "You mean, this was actually his game?"

Yugi nodded. "Remember how when Ishizu gave me those old toys and stuff, she said that there were games buried with him? Well, they salvaged a bunch of stuff from his and Seto's tombs that hadn't been stolen or destroyed. Most of it is being stored at the museum until they can repair the damage at the tombs, but Ishizu brought some of the smaller things to keep here." He indicated with a tilt of his head a closet that contained several safes, one of which was opened. "She's letting me look through everything, but I'm especially interested in the games."

Téa looked at the box and then at Yugi. "May I?"

"Mm hm."

He handed it to her, and she took it with a sort of reverence, turning it over in her hands. "It's beautiful. What's this on the back? Looks like more squares."

"It might have been another game, Twenty Squares. We don't know how it's played or anything about it except that it was played with the same pieces."

"Kind of like checkers and backgammon?"

"Yeah, something like that." He took the game back from her. "I would love to learn more about the games they played. Maybe if I studied Twenty Squares and some of the other games, like Hounds and Jackals, I could figure out how they were played. It might make a good masters thesis."

"Yugi, that is so totally perfect for you! I mean, if anyone could figure out these games, you could. You are the one who figured out how to solve the Millennium Puzzle, after all."

"And it would be a way to research something that's close to the other me without it being _about_ him, since I'd have trouble being objective enough to write about him directly. But this? This I could do."

"Definitely. So are you going to keep that game to study?"

He recoiled a little. "Oh, no, I couldn't do that. These belong to him. They were buried in his tomb, which meant he would have use for them in the afterlife. I can study other games, ones that weren't found in tombs."

"Oh, okay. That make sense." She stretched out her legs in front of her, and one of them bumped up against a golden box. "Hey, that looks like your Puzzle box. Did Atem have another one?"

"No, that one is mine. I kinda thought…." He trailed off, not sure where to start. Leaning over her, he collected the box, holding it in his lap. "You know that stuff Ishizu gave me? The last few days, ever since Mai's nightmare duel, actually… remember the talk we had afterwards?"

She nodded, but averted her gaze downward.

He put his hand on hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Well, after that talk, when I was trying to sort everything out, trying to figure out which me I was, I started looking through his things." Yugi put the Puzzle box off to the side and reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, pulling out the little wooden crocodile and the top. "I've been carrying these around with me ever since then. Kind of like getting to hold a piece of him. The crocodile reminds me of him—something strong, a fighter. The top…" He shrugged, sheepish. "It's his, and yet, it's something I would've loved as a kid." He spun it on the hardwood floor in front of them so she could see how the black and white patterns blended together in sort of a primitive animation. "Kinda like the two cartouches represent both of us, so do these, only they once belonged to him. They were things that weren't buried with him because he outgrew them. He gave them up, but I get to keep them as mementos."

"Like the Puzzle box."

"Well, I've been thinking about that, actually. That's why I brought it in here. The Puzzle box was never really his. The Millennium Puzzle was a solid pyramid when he wore it as Pharaoh. It was only after he sealed his _Ka_ into it that it was shattered into puzzle pieces. It was probably Seto or one of the guardians who put the pieces into this box and buried it in his tomb. So even though the box brought the Puzzle to me, it wasn't his, not the way these toys and games are. But it is a part of _my_ childhood. I was seven when I first took it from my grandfather, and I spent eight years trying to put the Puzzle together." He picked it up again, holding it in his hands. "Remember the wish I made on the Puzzle? It was still in the box at the time, so I kinda wished on the box, too."

"Your wish for friends."

"Hm." He bobbed his head in a short nod. "And the wish came true."

"The Puzzle didn't do that, Yugi. You did."

"I know. Actually, that's what I'm trying to say. I needed the box and the Puzzle then, because I didn't have any friends. And I needed the other me to be complete, and to believe in myself so that I could make friends. Just before the Ceremonial Battle, when I put the Millennium Puzzle back in its slot on the stone, I was thinking that because of the other me, I was ready to give it back. But I kept the box. I thought it was so I could keep a memento of him, but I think there was still a part of me not ready to give back the Puzzle completely. I still didn't understand exactly what it would mean to let him go, and I didn't really understand that I never really would be letting him go."

"And now?"

He smiled at her. "I think I understand now. Maybe not perfectly, but better. Just like he put away his toys when he didn't need them anymore, I think it's time for me to put away the Puzzle box. And since I get to keep his toys as mementos, I thought maybe… I dunno, maybe I could leave the box with the stuff that's going back in his tomb. That way, instead of me thinking of it as a memento of him, he could keep the box as a memento of _me_. I thought he might like that." He ducked his head, embarrassed. "Kinda lame, I know."

She hunched down so she was in his line of sight. "No, Yugi, it isn't lame at all. It's really beautiful. I definitely think he'd like that. I _know_ he would."

He looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Téa."

There was something else he wanted to tell her, one more thing he hadn't shown her yet. He put the Puzzle box aside once more, but before he could even figure out where to begin, she nudged him with her shoulder. "So how are you doing with all this? Really."

He breathed in, feeling the comforting new weight on his shoulders. "I'm good. Well, I'm still really sick about Professor Hawkins and Rebecca, but Kaiba's offer of his lawyers has taken a load off her mind, knowing that she can stay with us and stay close to her grandfather, so I think she's doing much better. But I still…" He sighed. "I hate that I can't do anything."

"You are doing something. You're being her big brother."

"I know. Grandpa gave me that lecture already."

"Rebecca's a tough kid. She'll get through this, and we'll all be there for her."

"I know."

Téa ran the back of her finger down his arm in a gentle caress. "But I wanna know how _you're_ doing. Seeing Atem again, the funeral, everything. We haven't really gotten a chance to talk about it."

He met her gaze. "I'm good. Really. He's where he belongs, and I got an extra chance to see him again, to tell him what he means to me. But what about you? That was kinda weird for you, too, wasn't it?"

She cocked her head back and forth, as if trying to decide. "Yeah, it was, a little. Seeing both of you together was kind of…." She trailed off, but he nodded in understanding. "It was good, though."

"And the funeral was perfect. Thank you for that, by the way. We should've done a wake like that three years ago."

"I don't think any of us really wanted to think of him as dead." She looked at Yugi, a playful look in her eyes. "But it was more than just a funeral, you know. It was kind of like a coronation, too. You're a pharaoh now!"

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, a _dead_ pharaoh."

The smile melted off her face. "That's not funny."

He blanched at the pain in her eyes. "Téa, I—"

"I came too close to losing you too many times, Yugi Mutou. Don't even joke."

He nodded. "I'm not going anywhere."

She leaned back against the sofa behind them and closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get twitchy on you. It's just hard watching you put yourself in danger over and over again."

"You're the one who said I'm a pharaoh now. Goes with the job."

She opened her eyes and smirked at him. "Okay, Pharaoh. So what will your first royal decree be?"

"Um… hamburgers every night?"

She laughed. "That's what you'd do with royal authority and divine power? Hamburgers?"

He thought of the last thing Atem said to him before they left to go deeper into the Shadow Realm, and an idea began to take shape in his mind. "All right, then what would you do if you were Queen of Egypt?"

"Me?" Her eyes took on a mischievous look, and she gave him an impish grin. "Hmm. I think I'd get one of those golden litters with some gorgeous, muscular men to carry me around everywhere."

He made a face. "Uh… not crazy about that idea."

"Eh, you're probably right. That's more Mai's style than mine. My own sail barge, then, so I can sail down the Nile, and everyone can stand on the banks and worship me from afar."

"Hm." Yugi shifted in his seat, curling his legs under him so that he was closer to her height. "Do you know what the other me said to me just before we left?"

"What?" Her eyebrows raised in curiosity. "The thing that embarrassed you?"

"Yeah. He was giving me a hard time about the whole 'pharaoh' thing, and then he noticed that Dark Magician Girl was _your_ guardian now, so he told me what she was training to be. Do you know what she would've become if Atem hadn't sealed himself into the Puzzle, but instead had gone on to have a normal reign?"

Téa shook her head.

"Almost immediately after his coronation, a marriage would have been arranged for him, so that he could produce heirs."

Téa looked surprised. "Are you saying he would have married Mana?"

"No, not her. He would've had to marry nobility, not a servant. Mana would have been the queen's guardian."

"Really? That's kinda cool. But why would that embarrass you?"

"Because the other me said that it was 'fitting' that she's your guardian now." He took a breath, trying to calm his suddenly jumpy nerves. "I don't have a golden litter or a sail barge to offer you, but I do have this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another heirloom from the bag Ishizu had given him—the gold and gemstone beaded necklace.

She sucked in her breath, her hand covering her mouth. "Yugi…."

"This is another one of his things I've been carrying around with me the last few days. I want you to have it, Téa."

"But…." Her hand moved from her mouth to her chest. "I can't take that! It's a priceless heirloom! It belonged to his _mother_. Ishizu said it was probably a betrothal gift!"

He met her eyes with a shy smile. "I know."


	6. Kansei

**6. **_**Kansei**_

Téa went completely still. "Yugi, what are you saying?"

He could feel his heart pounding a little too hard in his chest, but kept his eyes locked on hers and his voice steady. "You said you came too close to losing me, but I came really close to losing you, too. Only, it wasn't to some villain du jour or even to the Shadow Realm. It was because of my own stupidity. I couldn't figure out who I was and how the other me fit into everything, and instead of working it through _with_ you, I shut you out. Worse than that, I pushed you away. Well, no more. I'm done shutting you out. Whatever lies ahead, we face it together." He held up the necklace. "This is my promise to you, that I am completely with you now. All of me. Forever."

She slowly shook her head, looking a little dazed. "We've only been together seven months. Don't you think we need a little more time—"

A blush crept into his cheeks. "I'm not proposing, not exactly." He lowered his eyes, looking down at his lap, feeling sheepish. "I… I know we're still kinda young, and there's so much going on with me working on my master's and you going back to school again. And I really wanna look into what it would take to open a game shop with Joey, too. There are a whole bunch of things we should do first before we take that kind of step, I know that." He looked up again, meeting her gaze once more, his nervousness giving way to a quiet resolve. "I am going to propose to you some day. I'll give you a real ring, and we'll have a _yui-no_ ceremony and everything. But not today. This…" He indicated the necklace again. "This is to connect _him_ to both of us, to let you know that I'm not divided against myself anymore. I want you to take it with no strings attached. You don't have to promise me anything or even know what you want for the future. I just… I need you to know that for me, I can't imagine any future that doesn't include you."

She stared at him, tears forming in her eyes, and her mouth moved as if it wanted to say something, but her brain hadn't quite caught up yet. At last, words came. "Yugi, I could never accept such a gift unless I could make the same promise in return. It… it wouldn't be right."

He blinked. "Oh." Swallowing over the lump that formed in his throat, he folded his hand over the necklace. "Yeah, okay. I understand."

He started to put it back in his pocket, but she put her hand on his arm, stopping him. "Hey, where're you going with that? I didn't say I _wouldn't_ accept it."

He frowned, confused for a moment. "But you just said—" And then, his eyes widened as he understood.

Reaching out, she touched his face, her thumb brushing lightly on his cheek. "Don't you know that I can't imagine any future that doesn't include you, either?"

The words were barely out of her mouth before he was kissing her, the necklace dropping to his lap and then sliding onto the floor, forgotten, as he took her face in his hands to pull her closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingers curling into his hair, and he felt the blanket-like weight on his shoulders settle around them both, binding them together with its reassuring presence.

"Yo, Yuge, you—oops, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt."

Yugi and Téa broke off the kiss and looked up to where Joey was backing out of the doorway. Yugi blushed. "No, it's fine. Did you need something?"

"We're thinking about heading back to the hotel. You guys about ready?"

Yugi looked at Téa, who nodded, then gave him a sly grin. "We can pick up where we left off back at the hotel."

Yugi's eyes widened and his cheeks got even warmer. "O-okay. But there's something I need to do first. I just need a couple of minutes." He got up off the floor, then held a hand out to Téa to help her up as well.

"Works for me," Joey said. "Everyone's still kinda hanging out, so it'll be a while before we actually take off." He stepped into the study. "I do need to get all the coats, though. Mai sent me for them to 'keep me out of trouble.'" He made air quotes with his fingers, rolling his eyes in mild annoyance. "Ishizu said they were in here?"

"Yeah, on that chair." Yugi cocked his head in the direction of a chair near the door. It was piled high with a number of long overcoats. Joey nodded, then stepped over to the chair and started throwing coats over his arm.

Yugi started to head that way to help, but Téa coughed. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Her hands were on her hips and her eyebrow was arched in a somewhat reproving glare. He gave her a blank look and half a shrug in return, causing her to let out a _tsk_ of exasperation. "My necklace?"

"Oh! Right!" Yugi bent down and retrieved the fallen necklace from the floor. He went to hand it to her, but she turned her back to him, indicating with a tap to her neck that she wanted him to do the honors. As he fumbled with the ancient fastening, he saw another chain around her neck. "Hm. I forgot about the Dark Magician Girl pendant. Will it be in the way?"

"Oh, yeah, that. Hold on, it's tucked under my dress for the funeral." She pulled it out and looked down. "I think it's fine. It's got a pretty long chain. The Egyptian one is much shorter. You almost done?"

"The clasp is tricky. Maybe we can take it to a jeweler and have a modern clasp put on. Okay, almost… got it."

She turned around to face him. "Well, how does it look?"

"Perfect," he said, not thinking about the necklace at all.

"I need a mirror… ooh, there's one!" Pulling Yugi by the arm, she dragged him over to a decorative mirror that was hanging on the wall so she could admire the necklace. She gasped when she saw her reflection, and fingered the gold, blue, and red beads at her throat. "Oh, it's gorgeous! Yugi, thank you!" She reached over and pulled him into another kiss.

"Uh… a little help here?" They broke off again at Joey's second interruption. He was standing by the chair, his face hidden behind a pile of about a dozen overcoats.

"Oh, honestly, Joey! You can't carry all those yourself!" Téa shook her head like a mother who'd lost her patience with a careless child.

"That would be why I asked for help!"

Yugi and Téa went over to him and pulled off a few of the coats, which Téa slung over her own shoulder. "I can take some of these."

"Can you get the purses, too? They don't go with my outfit."

"Just go!" Téa spun him around and pushed him out the door, then scooped up five purses.

"Wait, Téa." Yugi took a step between her in the door. "Before you go, I was wondering if I could have your maker."

"My what?"

"Your marker." He pointed at the purse he recognized as hers. "I know you always carry a black marker in your purse. You know, just in case there's a dire smiley-face-across-the-backs-of-our-hands emergency."

She made a face at him, but put down the extra purses so she could open hers. She fished around for a moment, then produced the marker. "What do you need it for?"

"I need to leave someone a message." At her questioning look, he elaborated. "I'd like to leave it with the Puzzle box. Another memento for the other me."

Her eyebrows went up, and then she smiled, nodding. "I'd like that, Yugi. I think he will, too. Tell him for me—" She stopped, shaking her head slightly. "No. I think we're good. Whatever message you leave, it's enough." She handed him the marker, gave him a quick kiss on the side of his mouth, then gathered up the purses once more and left the room.

Yugi touched the spot on his mouth where she'd kissed him, a small smile playing on his lips as he went back to the couch. He bent down to pick up his Puzzle box off the floor, then brought it along with Téa's marker over to Ishizu's desk in the corner of the study. Looking around, he found a stack of blank paper next to her computer printer. He took a sheet and set it down on the desk next to the Puzzle box, then uncapped Téa's marker and began drawing on his left hand. Not the back of it, like Téa had twice done across his other hand to mark the bond between them all, but rather on his palm. He could almost feel his other self's hand, in _Sahu_ form, pressing against his own, fingers interlocking. Holding onto that memory, he let it fill every part of him with a deep and almost breathtaking warmth as he outlined a sort of bent teardrop shape on his palm, with the thin part of the drop curled on itself in a semicircle like a tail. He finished off the design with a black dot inside the thick part of the teardrop. The yang, or light half of a yin-yang symbol.

He traced over the image several times, making the lines as thick and dark as he could until the ink felt wet on his hand and the alcoholic fumes from the marker started burning his nose. When he finished, he took only a few seconds to inspect his work then, before the ink could dry, pressed his hand down onto the blank piece of paper. He left it there a moment, leaning on it with all his weight. When he removed his hand, he could see the jagged outline of the symbol imprinted on the paper. It was broken in places where there was a crease from his hand, and right in the middle of the black dot he could see the familiar shape of a burn scar he'd gotten a few years ago when he'd refused to let go of the Millennium Puzzle in the midst of a warehouse fire.

Satisfied that the symbol was both recognizable and clearly an imprint from his hand, he picked up the marker again and wrote two kanji characters beneath it, forming a single Japanese word: _kansei. Complete._ He considered writing the verb form to make it a clear direction rather than a description, but decided just to leave it. Atem would understand. He was, after all, Yugi's other self.

Yugi waved the paper in the air a few times to let the ink dry then, with great care, he folded the sheet of paper into quarters and put it inside the Puzzle box along with Téa's marker. Then he put the lid on the box and brought it back to the couch, scooped up the game and a few other of Atem's things that he'd been looking at, and took all of it to the open safe where Ishizu was keeping the belongings that were to be returned to his tomb. Placing everything inside, he kept his hand on the lid of the Puzzle box a moment and closed his eyes. _Thank you. For everything._ And then, with a slow and almost reverent movement, he withdrew his hand and closed the safe door. With a definitive click, the lock latched into place, sealing the Puzzle box and its contents inside. With a final bow of his head, he turned and headed out of Ishizu's study to join his friends.

He found them in the parlor, gathered together in several small groups. Pegasus and his grandfather were having a discussion that bordered on an argument—who knew what it was about. Kaiba and Rebecca were on opposite sides of a card table clearing up the remains of a chess game. Kaiba wore a smug, satisfied expression, while Rebecca was uttering loud complaints in a way that was just so _Rebecca_, Yugi couldn't help but smile. After a couple days of quiet from her, even her griping sounded good to his ears. Mokuba was trying to placate her, while Sara watched the entire proceedings with wry amusement. Nearby, Bakura and Marik were having a conversation with Joey, Mai, and Téa. Bakura laughed at something Marik said, and Téa and Mai both snickered along with him, but Joey was looking past them, chewing on his lip as he glared across the room at Tristan, Serenity, and Duke. Duke was standing behind a couch where the other two sat, leaning over so that his head was between them and his arms around both their shoulders. He and Tristan were waging one of their typical verbal sparring matches over something or another while Serenity rolled her eyes in strained patience at the two of them. Odion appeared in front of them, ever the accommodating host, and interrupted the squabble to ask if any of them needed one last coffee or bit of food before they left. Rashida was also circulating the room, picking up empty glasses and half-eaten plates of umm ali until Ishizu, regal and unassailable, stepped over and issued a firm reminder that they were family, not servants, and insisted that they put down the dishes.

In the midst of the sort of companionable chaos, Joey caught sight of Yugi and beckoned him over. "Yo, Yuge, did you hear that Pegasus hired a stretch limo to take us back to the hotel?"

"He did?" Yugi joined their group, slipping an arm around Téa's waist. She gave him a questioning look, and he smiled and gave a small nod in response.

"Yeah. He wants to talk over the plans for the next tournament on the way back." Joey looked at Téa. "Where'd you say Nationals was?"

"New Orleans."

"Oh, I love New Orleans." Mai smiled, her eyes bright. "The jazz, the French Quarter, the fabulous Creole food—"

"You got me convinced," Joey said.

"Me, too." Bakura nodded in eager agreement. Marik and Mai exchanged sympathetic looks of exasperation while Téa laughed.

Joey looked at Yugi. "So, you about ready to head out?"

Mai rolled her eyes. "Nationals isn't for three more months, lamebrain."

"I meant back to the _hotel_, your highness."

Yugi looked around the room at all his friends—his family—gathered there. "Yeah, Joey. I'm ready." He shifted his shoulders, letting the heartening new weight settle there. "Let's go."

_FINIS_


End file.
